Every Sunday I like to show you houses for sale around the country. Today I found a “Country Colonial” home in Newtown, Pennsylvania, that dates back to 1801 and is listed at a little over $1 million. I love looking at listings in that part of PA because there are so many great historical houses in the area.
With dark paneled walls and beamed ceilings, this one is for all of you who complained that you’re tired of seeing so many houses with stark white walls that feel “too cold.” {grin}
The listing is almost poetic in its description of the house:
Fabulous gardens! Trellised doorway leads through a cornucopia of ornamental trees, Belgian block walkways & free-form granite steps guide you to a reflective sitting place & on to a charming shed with antique leaded glass windows. Gardens of daffodils, tulips & a myriad of perennials create splashes of color throughout the seasons.
I’m loving this old stone fireplace:
The house has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths.
The Butler’s Pantry features painted cabinets:
The Kitchen is as warm and woody as the rest of the house:
The photos they took for the listing are beautiful, but I wish the bedrooms had been included.
Check out the rustic-looking railings on the staircase in the background:
Do you love all the wood and stone in the house or would it be too dark for you? Let’s hear from everyone who said they hate the cold, white-on-white look of some of the houses I’ve featured in previous Sunday Open Houses. Is this more your style?
Visit the listing by Daniel Leuzzi of Kurfiss Sotheby’s for more photos and information.
Want to see the “white houses” that some readers complained about?
- Designer Shannon Bowers’ House for Sale in Dallas
- A Reader’s Dream Home in Encino
- Historic Airlie Mansion in Melbourne
{ 74 comments… read them below or add one }
I love it!
I like the bits of stone in this house but its too dark with all the wood. I’d want all woodwork painted white. And the decor is too fussy…and I can be guilty of some fussy myself but this is way too fussy. Love the beams though and I do like the way the walls are done in the bathroom sans flowers.
Fabulous! I’d move in tomorrow…so beautiful with the hand painted touches…and that fireplace is just what’s needed to get rid of the winter cabin fever!
Thanks Julia…nice mix
LOVE!
The ceilings are amazing…
The details, the craftsmanship, the don’t build them like this anymore.
This house is gorgeous, and there are lots of windows. I really like the butler’s pantry
But I am all about light and airy! Keep ‘em coming, Julia
I love it — it has a plenty of windows that are keeping it very light even with the wood. I’m ready to move in!
I can’t believe anyone wouldn’t want to live there. It is a storybook cottage, cozy, romantic. Much more inviting than plain white walled interiors. Would be a dream for me.
LOVE IT!
The beautiful butler’s pantry is worth the price!
Wow! I love all the pictures!!! Extremely charming property, Julia.
Did you see this yet? Britney Spears’ New House??? I just finished my post. Come take a look, Julia.
xo
Luciane at HomeBunch.com
Post of the Day: Britney Spears’ New House.
http://www.HomeBunch.com
This is FANTASTIC. Thanks for sharing!
White has it’s place. There are some days I really long for the “clean” look of it.
That said, THIS is beautiful. Love it! ~Sally
It’s very beautiful. The wood does seem a tad overwhelming in these photos but I bet with different furniture, lighter/whiter, it wouldn’t be as dark.
Move in in a heartbeat. Let the furniture stay and I woudn’t change a thing
I would live there! Different furniture maybe and a few of my own touches but it is a beautiful house — so charming! I do get tired of houses that are all the same!!
Is it just me, or does some of the furniture looked Photoshopped in? The lighting and shadows seem off. And check out the coffee table in the last photo. One of the legs is different. Weird.
I agree…something is off (especially the last photo). Weird.
Virtual staging the new way to sell houses; no need for delivery guys tracking up your house. But the trick is to keep the furniture grounded, in scale and proportional.
The tea table in the living room seems to have anti-grav-suspenders, and they haven’t made a low wide wing chair in 45 years like the ones at the kit table.
Or I need to get to bed.
Now that you mention it, some of the furniture does look a little “tweaked” into the photos. You’ve got me staring at every table and chair now! Ha.
Oh it is just lovely! Looks so cozy and warm.Yep, i would be happy to live there! Thanks for sharing…
Beautiful! Those ceilings are gorgeous!
I’ll take it does it come with the furniture…. It’s beautiful and cozy the pantry got me. Thank you for sharing . Hope your weekend is going great. Regards Esther from Sydney.
What a nice house! It would be perfect for a vacation home. My favorite room in the whole house is the room with the vaulted dark would beam ceiling.
Thanks for sharing this with us Julia!
Love it love it love it. This looks warm and cozy and just… perfection. I think of everything you’ve ever posted, this would be the one I would want the most.
I do agree with the others that there’s something funky about some of the pictures….
I don’t care for the exterior (maybe because I can’t really see it) but the inside is lovely. The furniture doesn’t look real though. Has it been photo shopped? I hope the chandy in the LR is real though because I love it!
…oh how i love it…the interiors make me think of a “big holiday movie house”…my all time favorite…
…well… now that you mention it…that coffee table in the last picture does look as if it were magically plunked down…
Love beautiful wood — everywhere. Please more…
You are right in calling the description accompanying this listing, poetic, Julia. Without even looking at the pictures I was sold. Of course, I don’t think we would expect any thing less in a presentation coming from Sotheby’s.
I’ll take it! It doesn’t really seem colonial though, probably because the choice of furniture, but with the help of your posts on Christmas in Connecticut and Bringing Up Baby, it would be easy (albeit expensive) to turn it into a real dream of a house!
Not photoshopped, it’s the overhead lighting. The one shot is definitely MR-16 bulb which are the same bulbs used in jewelry stores. It’s “lamps” used to enhance so it can give a weird effect. Very cool home!
Too much wood for me. Also, over-decorated & distracting. Definitely seems dated. Over 1 million for this house? Seems like there would be too much work involved to get it looking good.
It does look photoshopped quite a bit. Even some of the cabinetry looks a little suspicious to me. I found myself scrutinizing every single detail in the photos to see if things were real or not. However, its quite beautiful!
LOVE it! I’d move in just like it is. This home has a lot of craftsmanship that you just don’t see anymore… and paint will never give it to you.
Oh and I agree.. it’s definately the lamps they used.
Perfect! Just my style
I really like the lines of the home, but the painted details are a little too fussy for me. Does that make any sense? I like the beams, high ceilings, gorgeous (!) fireplace, and all those windows. It is a tiny bit dark for my tastes. I also think they need to trim some of the trees in the exterior shot. It looks like those branches might beat the roof up in the event of a storm….
Coffee and a Sunday paper with fine music in the background. Ah YES!
Wow! What a tastefully decorated home! I am one of the ones who don’t care for all white walls. My own home doesn’t have any-except one room I am painting this year (just haven’t gotten to painting it yet since we bought the house less than two years ago). I too would have liked to have seen the bedrooms!
It’s a beautiful home! I live in SE PA and love all the historic stone homes here. Almost every December we do the Candlelight Christmas Home Tour in Chadds Ford. One historic home we visited was on the Brandwine River and the basement of the home was once a trading post for the Indians and settlers. Thanks for showcasing a PA home!
Hi Julia, The house could be lovely, but the wall paper and the furnishings really date it. I like the stonework, and some of the paneling, however, I would feel claustrophobic if I had to be here every day. There is no place for your eyes to rest…it is just too busy for me.
To me, this house is a great definition of “home”!!!
I think it’s wonderful….they got a look that could have gone very, very wrong…somehow right! Living in the PNW, cozy and warm interiors are welcome…and it definitely would make a great vacation home…well done!
The all white houses are nice too…just different animals (speaking of which, how’s Maizie doing?)
xo J~
Jessica–
Maizie is doing great! She gets the wires out of her jaw soon, so I’ll have to write an updated post after that to let you know how that went. Crossing my fingers that everything has healed okay. She gets stronger and looks healthier every day now that she has gained some much-needed weight. Thanks for asking! -Julia
Those beams, wonderful!! Then I would lighten it up a bit!!
xoxo
Karena
Art by Karena
I love it! I am one the ones that is tired of the stark white and the beige, brown, black, gold, and animal print decorating with lots of wrought iron. So many houses today look just the same (at least in my area). Everyone uses a very basic neutral palate and then adds in some form of red and gold. It’s getting boring. I love color!
oh my its stunning!
I love it! Very east coast-looking!!!
I would say some of the chairs were photoshop in and if they added anything else, they did a very good job. The house is a little to fussy for me but it was fun to check out.
Hi Julia,
I live in Raymond Alberta Canada, and we are going to take a 5 day trip
somewhere in the US. Instead of making the usual CA, FL, or Vegas trip, we thought it would be fun to find a smaller town that boasts great old houses, a little touristy, but fun. It will be a spring trip..
Any ideas would be great ! Thanks… love your site… I visit often !
Yes, this is my style for sure, I could move in without skipping a beat.
Can’t afford it… but if money were not object, this would be the style!
I did not think that I would enjoy this one from the first photo…..but I loved it…so warm and inviting………how lovely.
Thank you, Julia. There’s not a thing I don’t like about it. It’s warm, welcoming, elegant and yet, homey.
(:
Oh my gosh, BEAUTIFUL!! I am collecting my pennies, i want this house!! The photo’s look like painting’s. Seeing this home really makes me miss my homestate. I am a PA girl living in California.
That is too funny, when I blogged this house, I swore I was looking at Photoshopped pictures! I don’t know if it is just seriously great and weird lighting or if it really is fixed. Loved the house though.
Way too dark and a little oppressive for me. Way too much of everything for my taste. I like white walls and light and airy!
Wasn’t crazy about the outside but do love the interiors especially the amazing pantry.
I could definitely live in this house! It’s beautiful but, more important, it’s cozy and warm. I wish they would have included bedroom pictures, too.
I definitely don’t like all white walls, but this house is much too busy for my tastes. I wouldn’t mind a visit there, but if I were to live there, I’d make a lot of changes and simplify.
That house would be in the $2 mill range here! What a beauty!
Wow. That is so dreamy!
Wow … LOVING that kitchen!
Beautiful wood! Julia, if anyone wants a similar for under $300k in central PA – I’ve got one!
Just wonderful! Every piece of furniture looks so lovingly purchased and placed. I’m not a fan of wallpaper but in this home, I wouldn’t change a thing. The place is so warm I wouldn’t even mind this dreadful winter lasting a little longer if I could spend it there.
Thank you so much for posting about a home in Newtown, PA – my hometown! I loved living there! My family all still lives there, and we are headed up to visit in a few days!
It’s nice to know the area (Bucks County) and its historic homes are loved by others as well! Take care!
I don’t think I have ever felt so mixed about a house before. There are a lot of things I LOVE about it and other things I don’t. I don’t like a lot of the wood paneling, I think it is over done for me, and some of the wallpaper is just not my style. I love a lot of the other features though. I love the fireplace, wood beams in the ceiling, and I think the kitchen could be my dream kitchen if a few things were changed.
Absolutely wonderful! We purchased a house with a lot of wood like this in the country and living in it is much more warmer and cosier than the house we use to have in the suburbs that had all white trim and doors like all the other houses on the street.
I love this. I have to admit I’ve grown bored with all white look. It seems like it’s becoming too predictable. Thanks for posting this!
Whoa! Not usually my taste, but this is fantastic! Kitchen cabinets are a little over the top for me, but otherwise I love it!
Love the bones of the house, and I admit I’m a fan of lots of wood and stone, which gives such a warm, cozy feel in my book. Not in love with the furnishings, which are too formal and heavy for me, though they appear to be softened with luxe fabrics. The fussiness seems dated. Don’t like the checkerboard wallpaper or the black cabinets in the kitchen. However, I think the bath with the botanicals is lovely. I’d love to see this re-done with a simpler style, lots of linen and accessorized with a bit of a modern rustic vibe with some interesting antique artefacts. I love a contrast between warm wood tones and off-white, which would lighten things up. Would also love to see the gardens – they sound dreamy! Thanks for reaching out to us woodsy types!
I’m one of the tired of the white group, but I agree with everyone above who said it was too dark, busy and formal. I wouldn’t feel comfortable here either and it doesn’t feel like home to me. Of course, I do like it better than the white/neutral palette.
I do adore that kitchen though. I would love to cook in there, and I’m not fond of cooking.
This house has amazing character! I love it!
I like it! I really like that the kitchen goes with the rest of house. So many times you see beautiful historic homes and then the kitchen is all white 2011 and it shocks you. This one just blends in and fits in. I could live here. Will you leave all the furniture please (except the eagle chair and the blue table in the bathroom) LOL!
I’m not a fan of that style of furniture though I suppose it does go with the house.
The house itself is beautiful with lots of big windows. However, I wouldn’t want all the dark wood. I love white doors and trim against nice neutral wall colors like taupe (not boring white walls!). I like lighter, sunnier rooms.
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